A Look Back at Latinx Heritage Month 2020
Latinx Heritage Month is always a great time at Hulu. In previous years, Hulu’s Organization for Latinx Americans (HOLA) hosted iconic happy hours, diverse panels, and speakers across our offices.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hulugans had to think outside the box on how to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month and highlight the diverse cultures that make up the Latinx community.
To kick off Latinx Heritage Month, all HOLA members were given customizable Zoom backgrounds, so they could represent their countries as well as show their support as allies during meetings all month long.
HOLA also hosted their first ever “Cafecito”. These one-hour Cafecito sessions are built for Latinx Hulugans and allies to chat with and learn from senior Latinx leaders at Hulu. To kick off this series, HOLA invited executive sponsor, Gaude Paez, Hulu’s SVP and Head of Corporate Communications to host. Hulugans chatted with Gaude about their experiences being Latinx at Hulu, and Gaude shared more about Hulu’s plans for increasing Latinx representation on channel and behind the scenes.
The team also focused on raising awareness for a lesser known Latinx story: the history of Boogaloo music. HOLA partnered with Hulu Black, Hulu’s employee resource group for Black Hulugans and allies, to host a screening of We Like It Like That, a 2014 film that tells the story of Latin boogaloo, an expression of 1960s New York City Latino soul. For many Hulugans, it was their first time learning about this chapter in Latin music history.
The celebration didn’t stop within the (virtual) walls of Hulu. Team members had the opportunity to participate in Latinx Heritage Month events across The Walt Disney Company as well. One of those events was Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow Conversation: Hispanic/Latinx Representation, where Latinx journalists, creatives, and activists discussed navigating race in the workplace, how distinct cultures are portrayed and often underrepresented, as well as what it means to be Hispanic/Latinx in today’s environment.
On our Life At Hulu social channels, Latinx Hulugans shared more about what this month means to them, how they celebrated, and even launched HOLA’s first ever Latinx cookbook! See what they had to share by clicking on the images below.
Hulu’s content team gave viewers an update on the inaugural Latinx List. The list, in partnership with The Black List, focuses on original pilots written by at least one Latinx writer and features a Latinx or Latin American character in a prominent role, and represents Hulu’s commitment to telling diverse, Latinx stories. To celebrate Latinx Heritage Month, Hulu sat down with each of the ten finalists for conversations about the importance of Latinx representation in TV and film. At the end of the month, Hulu announced the three writers who will be offered pilot script deals with Hulu.
Hulu also refreshed its “Latino” genre hub with an all new Latinx Leads collection, containing titles like Love, Victor, Vida, Dora, Freestyle Love Supreme, Los Espookys, Hustlers, and more.
Throughout the month, it was hard not to notice the diverse array of cultures and heritages shared by Hulugans from across the business. Team members expressed repeatedly that there is not ‘one way’ to be Latinx. This month not only gave Hulugans a platform to express how proud they are of their Latinx backgrounds and traditions but also the opportunity to continuously learn from Latinx peers and celebrate differences together.
Thank you to all of our team members at Hulu and across The Walt Disney Company for making this month such a great celebration of Latinx culture and heritage.
